Fresh-Cut Vegetables and Fruits: Do They Really Meet Sustainability and Nutritional Benefits?

Fresh-cut fruit and vegetables (F&V) achieved a huge market development since the 1980s due to their convenience and freshness. The balance between the benefits of processing, which may increase F&V consumption in certain contexts, and the environmental impact, due to energy, chemicals, and plastic use, but also waste production, is questioned.

Researchers mainly investigated solutions to increase fresh-cut vegetable safety, sensory quality, and freshness, but also to reduce their environmental impact. The attribute of those foods leading to purchase or consumption is essentially freshness, whereas barriers are a lack of trust in safety or technologies, but also price and values such as sustainability.

This review gathers the most recent advances on nutritional benefits and environmental impact of fresh-cut F&V. Their sustainability faces many challenges. Success relies on both multiobjective tradeoff methods applied at production, supply chain, and production levels and on policy decisions.